Edwin Yogi Andrean

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History of The English Language and Culture

Review of Old English Period

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is the name that commonly used to mention the earliest
stage of the English language. It refers to the language that used in the long period of time from
the coming of Germanic invaders and settlers to Britain, in the period of the collapse of Roman
Britain in the early 5th century. Old English was first written in the runic alphabet. This alphabet
was used in northern Europe, In Scandinavia or in present day called Germany. The
Scandinavian attacks on Britain took place between 787 and 850. These people were commonly
known as the Vikings and they were Germanic inhabitants in presently Denmark, Norway and
Sweden. What is interesting therefore is that they were originally also neighbors of the AngloSaxons and spoke a closely related language (Old Norse). Conflicts and interactions with raider
and settler of Scandinavian origin were built up the central theme in Anglo-Saxon history.
Before the coming of the Anglo-Saxons, the majority of the population of Britain spoke Celtic
languages. Old English was a group of dialects that reflect diverse origins of the kingdom of the
Anglo-Saxons in England. It gets started when they first came to England from northern
Germany in the 5th century and brought their language with them. Actually it is a low quality of
the West Germanic branch of the great Germanic language.
During the course of the next several hundred years, gradually more and more of the
territory in the area later known as the kingdom of England. Political and cultural events was
changed the Anglo-Saxon language into the language we speak today.
Over the next two centuries, Anglo-Norman French mixed with Anglo-Saxon because the
children of the Norman-French aristocracy were being raised by servants who spoke AngloSaxon among themselves. Automatically the two languages blended together then creating the
grammars and vocabularies of Anglo-Norman and Anglo-Saxon. That does begin in Norman
Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror, a prince of Normandy conquered England
Kingdom. Then William made French language as the official language of the aristocracy and the
law courts.